The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1887-04-23
MEXICAN METHODS.
ANCIENT AGRICULTURE AS PRAc-
: TICED IN OUR SISTER REPUBLIC.

o.
a Famous Observation-Disclosures OF
the sOiI-Finest Soil In the Republic
Agricultural Implements Ancient
1Iethods-The Water Question.
Much has been said about Mexican
haciendas, but probably few people re-
alize the vast extent and unlimited posi-
bilities of some of them. In this wonder
full country there are estates into each OF
which many an Old World principality
might be crowded, and which king
might be proud to own as his domain. An
example of this is the famous soladO
hacienda, which covers more than 500
square miles. 1t lies partly in the states
of Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, Zacatecas and
San Luis PotOsi, on the great highway TO
the capital and the line of the New Next
can Central railway, having an average
elevation of over 1000 feet Chains Of
mountains traverse it-how rich in min
eraI wealth nobody knows: while flourish
ing farms, mining settlements, manufac-
turing centres, and even incorporated vii
lagos are found within its limits. j ust
think of it, Over 100000 acres of this
fruitful soil, which bears everything
grown in both temperate and trOpic
zones-producing, at least, two crops or
corn a year, and a perpetual and almost
spontaneous crop of many other things
is neat little property. "by no means to
be dispiged," as the immortal Sairy would
say.
THE REAL PRODUCTII ENEss.
AS to the real productiveness of this soil,
it is difficult to get information in reliable
figures. Inquire of Mexican how much
his field or orchard yields, and the inyari-
able answer-accompanied by an inimita-
BILE shrug of the shouIders-is "Quien
sabep (Who knowsD or "Ast DiOs
quirere! CAS- God wills1 ] have ascer-
tanned that with Mexican cultivation
which means merely tickling the surface
of the soil and turning ON " alter now and
then-from thirty to forty-Iive bushels OF
corn to the acre is considered satisfact-
cry return. The few who have tried i'm
proved methods of cultivation affirm that
seventy five bushels of corn twice year,
pe1 acre, may easily be produced planting
the first crop in February and the second
in July or August. In this country the
standard price of corn is cents per
pound.
Probably the finest soil in the republic is
found on those fertile plains lying be-
tween Leon and San Juan del Rio, where
one fanega (about three bushels) of seed
will yield on moderate average, not less
than $50 fanegas of corn. In several of the
Mexican substantially Guerrero, Jalisco,
Oajaca and TObasco-three crops Of corn
are regularly produced in a single year,
called respectively reiego, temporal and
toralmile. Wheat grows to good advan
tage in all but five of the Mexican states,
and two crops in twelve months is the
rule
Within the last five years many plOws and
other agricultural implements have been
brought to Mexico; but upon the vast ma
jority of farms nothing to this day has
ever been employed for turning up the soil
but great forked sticks, or clumsy, three
cornered wooden cOncerns-precisely like
those used in Egypt 1000 years ago, if
pictures of the latter are correct. The
process of threshing, also, is almost uni |
versally conducted in the primitive fash
ion of King Davids day or by the still /
more simple method of throwing the grain |
into an enclosure and driving a flock Of /
sheep to and fro upon it.
THE WATER QUESTION.
That perpleXing water questiOn-which, /
in Utah. for example, the MormOns have
regulated to the nicely of clockwork-is
here among the mysteries that "nO fellow /
can find out" If you ask farmer about his
irrigating privileges, he will tell you that
he has mine days water" thirteen days .
water" or twenty days water" as the /
case may be-meaning that he has a right |
to turn water on his land once in every /
nine, thirteen or twenty days-a privilege /
which you may be sure has cost him I
good round sum. In thickly populated /
sections the greatest difficulty now seems
to be that all the available water has al /
ready been transferred from the rivers to /
the irrigating bitches.
It is but reasonable logic to conclude
that if Mexican land is valuable only
when irrigated, and if most of the avail
able water is now in use in the al
ready cultivated area, the country must
look to some improved method for
lessening its enormous stretches of waste
lands and barren deserts; and, as the ma
tives have not advanced agriculturaIly a !
single step in the course of three centur-
les it clearly rests with their more enter
prising cousins, the Yankees, to come
down here and devise the methods 1t
has been proved again and again, that all !
these desert sands and arid reaches of Gao
tus and chaparral may be made to "blos-
som as the rose" by merely turning water !
upon them at regular intervals, and gov
eminent lands are everywhere for sale.
at the rate Of from 80 cents to cents for
an American acre.
Artesian wells have not been tried to
any extent for purposes of irrigation; but
that water is everywhere abundant,
though sometimes far below the surface,
is shown by the numerous very deep wells.
of purest and clearest water, which are
found all over Mexico Fannie B. Ward
in Boston Transcript
a Famous Tree at Vieksburg.